Jun 5, 2017

Apple debuts peer-to-peer payments on iOS

Kia Kokalitcheva

Screenshot by Axios

Apple is finally rolling out peer-to-peer payments as part of its update to iOS 11, the company announced on Monday at its annual developer conference in San Jose. The feature is part of Apple Pay, the tech giant's digital payments service, and can be accessed via iMessage, making it easy to send money right from a chat conversation with another user.

Taking on the competition: The much-rumored feature puts Apple in direct competition with services like PayPal's Venmo app and Square's Cash. Apple Pay, which is already available as an alternative to credit cards for paying in store and online, has been steadily growing in popularity, so its new peer-to-peer feature is sure to make existing competitors nervous. With that said, the feature only works for Apple Pay users, so people will won't be able to use it for payments to or from Android users.

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